E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Scuttle.
To scuttle a ship is to bore a hole in it in order to make it sink. Rather strangely, this word is from the same root as our word shut or bolt (Saxon scyttel, a lock, bolt, or bar). It was first applied to a hole in a roof with a door or lid, then to a hatchway in the deck of a ship with a lid, then to a hole in the bottom of a ship plugged up; then comes the verb to pull out the plug, and leave the hole for the admission of water.
1
Scuttle (of coals, etc.) is the Anglo-Saxon, scutel, a basket.
2
“The Bergen [Norway] fishwomen … in every direction are coming … with their scuttles swinging on their arms. In Bergen fish is never carried in any other way.”—H. H. Jackson: Glimpses of Three Coasts, pt. iii. p. 235.
